Eagles-Jets breakdown: Carter solid again, Hackenberg not

Here some things that stood out Thursday night in the Philadelphia Eagles’ final preseason game, which served as a final audition for so many players on the roster bubble.

Like their previous three exhibition games, this was an ugly one for their offense, which was mostly stifled for a second straight week in a 10-9 victory over the New York Jets. The only difference is that this time none of their starters played.

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Eagles tackle Jordan Mailata is grateful for all the help he’s received as a rookie.

But many who don’t have a realistic chance of surviving the final roster cuts on Saturday did, and that’s where we begin with our top takeaways and observations.

Christian Hackenberg

The former Penn State quarterback, added after training camp began, did little to convince the Eagles to keep them on their practice squad … or anyone else to call after he is released.

Hackenberg tossed a pair of interceptions before running out of time on what might have been an impressive two-minute drive at the end of the first half.

His second pick was scary wild for such a short attempt, sailing over the receiver’s head.

To be fair, they would have had a first down and more had tight end Billy Brown not alligator-armed a much more accurate pass over the middle on the previous play. And in the third quarter Hackenberg did accomplish something no Eagles quarterback was able to do the week before: lead them on a scoring drive, albeit for three points from long range by Jake Elliott.

In the end, he had just seven completions in 16 attempts for 69 yards. Though he did run for 66 yards on five attempts.

What he showed was excellent speed and decision-making with run-pass options. But his errant passes simply missed by too much — almost certainly the result of mechanical issues that he may have run out of time to correct.

No flag?

Forget the helmet rule for a second. The NFL might have a bigger problem with the simple consistency of officiating in general.

Early in the first quarter, Eagles safety Jeremy Reaves absolutely destroyed defenseless receiver Charone Peake, who took two complete steps after a drop over the middle.

Valiantly as rookie Josh Adams tried, the thought here is that he didn’t have much of a chance to make the team even had he turned in a monster performance, which he didn’t.

Adams finished with 27 yards on 13 carries. But the biggest clue to his fate was provided by the playing rotation in this game.

A week earlier, Adams and Wendell Smallwood each played a good number of snaps. In this game, Smallwood didn’t play at all, which is the surest sign that they had already made the decision to keep him as their fourth back — behind Jay Ajayi, Darren Sproles and Corey Clement.

With starting linebacker Nigel Bradham headed to the suspended list for the first week of the season, it means the Eagles will have an extra roster spot for their first game for someone they presumably will have to let go after opening with the Atlanta Falcons on Sept. 6.

The thought here going in is that the Eagles will go light at safety or defensive tackle to start the season so they could keep an extra offensive lineman, such as Jordan Mailata.

So the guess here is that a player in one of those position groups could have some temporary employment in Week 1.

“I no longer think 21-year-old Aussie LT Jordan Mailata is going to be a starting LT in the NFL,” he tweeted. “I think he's going to be All-Pro. Borderline obsessed with this dude at this point. This is crazy. Eagles are going to go right from Peters to Peters Jr.”

What needs to be placed in perspective here, though, is that Mailata has yet to face any top-flight players. He’s doing all his work against backups.

Still, he looks like someone too valuable to risk slipping through waivers to get to your practice squad.

I no longer think 21 year old Aussie LT Jordan Mailata is going to be a starting LT in the NFL.